
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 


Chap. TC-1%4 
Shelf ,M 5t 

PRESENTED BY 


UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 










’-- 




































Y H E 


NICARAGUA CANAL 

THE GATEWAY BETWEEN THE OCEANS 


Published by Authority of 


THE CHAMBER OF COMHERCE OF SAN FRANCISCO 
THE BOARD OF TRADE OF SAN FRANCISCO 

THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF PORTLAND, OREGON 
THE CHAHBER OF COMMERCE OF SAN DIEGO 


WILLIAM 



L. MERRY 


The Commercial Organizations Which Have United in This Publication For 
the Public Interest, Respectfully Request That All Who Desire 
to Increase the Prestige and Commerce of Our Country 
and the Prosperity of the Pacific Coast, 

Will Aid in Giving It as Wide a 
Circulation as Possible 


SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 

1895 


PRESS OF COMMERCIAL PUB. CO., 34 CALIFORNIA ST. 








“The landmark to the double tide 
That purpling rolls on either side, 

As if their waters chafed to meet 

Yet pause and crouch beneath her feet.” 

— Byi'o?i> “The Siege of Corinth 



Technical Details. 


Total Distance from Ocean to Ocean 

Canal in Excavation 

Lengths of Basins - 

Kiver San Juan - 

Lake Nicaragua - 

Free Navigation in Lake, Kiver and Basins 

Elevation of Summit Level of Canal above 

Length of Summit Level 

Number of Locks ... - 

Brea test Lift of Lock 

Dimensions of Locks 

Depth of Canal ■ 

Least Width at Bottom 
Time Transit From Ocean to Ocean 
Length of Lake Nicaragua - 
Average Width - 
Surface Area 

Area of Watershed of Lake 


109.4 miles 

*26.8 “ 
21.6 “ 
64 5 “ 

56.5 “ 

142.6 “ 

Sea Level - 110 feet 

153.2 miles 
6 

45 feet 

- 650 feet long, 80 feet wide 

30 feet 
- 100 “ 
28 hours 
110 miles 
40 

about 2,600 square miles 
44 8,000 “ 


*A remarkable fact. 





dedication. 


TO THE PIONEER MERCHANTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST, 

Who , over trackless plains , around the Cape of Storms , across the Isthmus of Panama y 

or through beautiful Nicaragua, 

Forced their Way to and Laid the Foundation of our Pacific Empire, 

This Book , 

Issued by the Commercial Organizations by Them Established, 

Is Respectfully Dedicated. 

WILLIAM /.. MERRY. 


General XJ. S. Grant, Xortli American Review. 

February, 1881. 

“ In accordance with the early and later policy of the Government; in obedience 
to the often expressed will of the American people ; with a due regard to our national 
dignity and power ; with a watchful care for the safety and prosperity of our interests 
and industries on this Continent; and with a determination to guard against even the first 
approach of rival powers, whether friendly or hostile, on these shores, I commend an 
American Canal on American soil to the American people, and congratulate myself 
on the fact that the most careful explorations have been started, and that the route 
standing in this attitude before the world, is the one which commends itself as a judicious y 
economical and prosperous work.” 




Report of tlie Commission appointed by the President of 
tlie United States in 1872 “ to Examine Into, Make 
Suggestions and Report Upon the Subject of Inter- 
Oceanic Ship Canal Communication.” 

Washington City, February 7th, 1876. 

To the President of the United States : 

The Commission appointed by you to consider the subject of communication by 
canal, between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, across, over, or near the 
isthmus connecting North and South America, have the honor, after a long, careful, 
and minute study of the several surveys of the various routes across the continent, 
unanimonsly to report : 

That the route known as the “ Nicaragua Route ” beginning on the Atlantic side 
at or near Greytown, running by canal to the San Juan River * * * from thence 

across the lake and through the valleys of the Rio del Medio and the Rio Grande to 
what is known as the Port of Brito, on the Pacific Coast, possesses, both for the con¬ 
struction and maintenance of a canal, greater advantages and offers fewer difficulties 
from engineering, commercial and economic points of view than any of the other routes 
shown to be practicable by surveys sufficiently in detail to enable a judgment to be 
formed of their relative merits, as will be briefly presented in the appended memo¬ 
randum. We have the honor to be, with high respect, 

Your obedient servants, 

DANIEL AMMEN, U. S. N., 
Commodore and Chief of Bureau of Navigation. 

ANDREW A. HUMPHREYS, 
Brigadier-General, Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., etc. 

C. P. PATTERSON, 

Superintendent U. S. Coast Survey. 



( 


MAX' OF THE MARITIME CANAL OF NICARAGUA 


















THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 


Its Commercial Necessity. 

On the Pacific Coast of the United States the commercial necessity for the prompt 
construction of the Nicaragua Canal is so obvious that it finds no opponents worthy of 
consideration. The Southern States are almost equally interested, and two great Canal 
Conventions have been held there to promote it. The Eastern seaboard States are 
also ardent advocates of the Canal, and what indifference to the beneficent enterprise 
exists today, is found in the Middle West, where its immediate benefits are not so evi¬ 
dent to the casual observer, although easily demonstrated upon examination. It is a 
notable fact however, that the citizens of the great interior city of Chicago, renowned 
for her enterprise and commercial activity, are among the most ardent advocates of the 
Canal, and are fully cognizant of its advantage to them, when, by means of a navigable 
water-way to the Gulf, to be completed in 1896, they shall have an outlet to the Ocean 
very near to the Gateway of the Pacific. 

The Pacific Coast of the United States is isolated from our Eastern and from 
European markets by a continent over three thousand miles wide, with two moun¬ 
tain ranges over which the locomotive must climb, with ponderous loads, at heavy 
cost, and by a sea voyage of nearly 15,000 miles, around Cape Horn. It suffers 
from commercial isolation, modified, however, in recent years by the construction 
of five overland railways and by the opening of Isthmus routes at Panama and 
Tehuantepec, while Guatemala and Costa Rica are also striving to obtain outlets on 
the Atlantic Coast. The railways crossing the continental mountain chains to the 
Atlantic, are powerless for the provision of cheap transportation for the bulky products 
of our soil, although very valuable for rapid transportation, with which the Canal can 
not interfere to an extent which will offset the benefit they will receive from it. For 
many years to come we must look to our Eastern sea coast and to the continent of 
Europe for our principal markets. Great changes are being inaugurated in Eastern 
Asia which may ultimately open for us new markets there, but for a long future, our 
main reliance will be upon Atlantic markets, while our geographical position gives us 
advantages in Eastern Asiatic markets, when conditions shall enable us to develop them 
more rapidly. Under the present conditions Asiatic merchandise which would natur¬ 
ally be distributed from Pacific Seaports is, by the railroad policy of competition with 
the Suez Canal diverted to Eastern cities, San Francisco having in this respect been 
seriously discriminated against. The Canal will remedy this. When completed, the 
Suez Canal will no longer be a factor to the detriment of our Asiatic import trade. 
The Atlantic Coast will be supplied through the Nicaragua Canal, steamships calling at 
San Francisco and San Diego en route to the Atlantic, for the reason that the “great 
circle ” or shortest ocean route from Eastern Asiatic seaports, passes within 180 miles 
of San Francisco and 130 miles of San Diego! As the diversion from the great circle, 
when steering for Pacific Ports, would be made at about the 180th degree Meridian, the 
loss in distance created thereby would be approximately one half of the above distance, 
in fact not appreciable. When thus calling at our ports, these Atlantic bound steam- 


8 


/ 


ships loaded at Asiatic ports, would partly duplicate their earnings by discharging a por¬ 
tion of their cargo here and replacing it with Pacific Coast products for Atlantic ports, 
while coaling. Thus the tide of Asiatic commerce to the Atla?itic would enter our Pacific 
Ports , while as far Eistward as the Mississippi River, our railways will be able to dis¬ 
tribute Asiatic merchandise in competition with Gulf and Atlantic ports, with the ad¬ 
vantage of position in our favor. To demonstrate what I have here asserted, let the 
reader draw a flexible string tightly, on a large globe, between Yokohama and the 
Pacific terminus of the Nicaragua Canal, and the argument will be made plain. All 
Asiatic commerce to the Pacific Coast, by steam, and in less degree by sail, must pass 
near Japan, and thus the argument applies to it as an entirety. This branch of the 
subject is worthy of more time than can at present be given it, but no one who has 
investigated it, contests the necessary results herein set forth. 

I pass on to our commerce with the Atlantic, first Eastward, for the reason that, 
upon the profitable marketing of the products of our soil and industry/depends more 
largely than any one factor, the prosperity of our Pacific Coast. For years to come our 
people will be principally producers. Manufacturing except for local purposes, is gen¬ 
erally done at a disadvantage with competing Eastern and European points. Coal, 
wages and labor are all higher here than there, and the manufacturer cannot expect to 
succeed in the export trade unless he can compete in price and quality ; to expect 
more than a preference at the same price, is more than can be justly asked and more 
than will be generally accorded by buyers. I do not wish to be understood as un¬ 
derrating the importance of developing Pacific Coast manufactures ; indeed, no effort 
should be spared toencourage them, asany com nunity which depends upon production 
alone is at a great disadvantage, and we should, by every means, develop the local 
pride which prefers a home manufactured article, a point wherein our people have been 
and are remiss to their detriment. 

It is in the elimination of about 10,000 miles on our cheap water route for the 
products of the Pacific Coast that the Nicaragua Canal will the most benefit us. Ten 
thousand miles! Equal to twice across the Pacific Ocean, and nearly half the circum¬ 
ference of the globe ! Hereafter I shall prove how much cheaper than any other com¬ 
munication is freight carried by water, especially upon Ocean routes. The evidences 
of this are all around us and are universally admitted. I shall particularize in some of 
the principal productive industries, but the limits of this paper will not permit the con¬ 
sideration of all the benefits to our producers to be secured by a short water route to 
the Atlantic. 

Our lumber trade has for years been in a very unsatisfactory condition. It is an 
industry with very heavy investments, and enormous possibilities, and it has not been 
remunerative by reason of our isolation from the great markets of the World. The 
output has been greatly restricted by agreement, and even with this precaution there 
has generally been no profit in the industry. Our export is limited to an occasional 
cargo for Australia, South Africa, South America, with invoices to Mexico and Central 
America. Europe and our Eastern seaboard is denuded of timber, while the demand 
on the Southern and Middle Western States has of late years been so heavy that those 
sections are being rapidly stripped of timber. On the Pacific Coast, there is an 

Note —Steamships en route from Yokohama to the Atlantic, via Canal will lose only 91 
knots by calling at San Francisco, and from Hongkong only 20 knots. The reader’s attention is 
called 10 the table of distances on page 38. 



DREDGES AT WORK ON CANAL NEAR ATLANTIC TERMINI’S. 





























IO 


enormous supply, the undisturbed growth of ages, and the completion of the Canal 
will inaugurate a tremendous development of this trade. It will enhance values of 
timber lands far more than the entire cost of the Canal, and employ a great amount of 
shipping, a large part of which will be documented under the American flag, thus 
creating activity in American shipyards and iron industries. The demand for our 
redwood and Oregon pine will exceed all anticipations as they have no equals for 
special purposes, in the world's supply of lumber. These facts are so thoroughly under¬ 
stood by our lumber merchants that they have for years been ardent supporters of the 
Nicaragua Canal. 

Our wheat industry is in a lamentable condition, and generally unremunerative for 
export. Indeed, it has, so far as export is concerned, been a gamble with the forces of 
nature. A five months voyage around the Cape has made it impossible to do more 
than hope for a successful shipment, since no man can correctly estimate the world’s 
supply during the ensuing season, months ahead, and it is a noticeable fact that all 
the heaviest San Francisco wheat deals have been financial failures. 

India through the Suez Canal, Russia near by, and Argentine within twenty-five 
days of European markets, control the trade against us, both in time and distance ; they 
“ have the call” and we come in at the tail end ! Consider the magic change of an 
open canal ! New York in eighteen days, and Europe in twenty-five days, easy steam¬ 
ing, will place our wheat dealers in fair competition with all the world ! It will no 
longer be necessary to charter and load an entire ship. Cargo steamers will carry 
invoices direct from producers if they wish and the gambling element in our present 
wheat shipments will be eliminated. A quick delivery will make it practically a cash 
trade, on a safe basis of small profits and a large volume of business, done mostly by 
steamers, bringing European passengers and merchandise westward. The saving on 
wheat freights would have already furnished money enough to build the Canal, although 
of recent years freights via the Cape have often been low, but they can never be low 
enough by that 15,000 mile route to offset the disadvantages alluded to. 

Our fruit industry will receive a great impetus when the Canal is open to it. In 
the transportation of fresh fruit time is an important factor, and by rail freights must 
always be comparatively high. It is encouraging that improved methods tend to reduce 
the cost of transportation, and in this industry railways can better compete with the 
Canal than in the others so far named, for the demand is largely in the interior of the 
Continent, and to such points as a comparatively high freight can be paid, leaving a 
profit to the producer. 

But the modern refrigerator, as applied to steamships, has solved the question of 
cheap transportation of perishable products by sea. Thousand of tons of fresh beef, 
mutton, etc., are now always en route from Australia and New Zealand to Europe in 
refrigerator steamships. Meat products require a temperature of 22° to 26 ° Farh. for 
safe keeping, while fruits require 36 3 to 38° Farh. for preservation ; a dry 
atmosphere being needed in both cases. Partial cargoes of fresh fruit are now being 
successfully shipped from Cape Colony to Europe, across the Equator, under conditions 
much less favorable than they would be via the Nicaragua Canal. 

When our horticulturists have the markets of Northern Europe open to them at a 
low cost, in 25 days, by refrigerator steamers, the fear of an overproduction may be 
safely dismissed. Our fruits, large and small, and our vegetables are luxuries in North- 


ern Europe, with a market limited only by the cost to consumers. Our production is 
so rapidly increasing that by the time the Canal can be opened it will be needed. That 
this is fully appreciated is proven by the ardent support given the Canal by all our 
horticulturists, the energetic people of Southern California being especially pronounced 
in this demand for a short waterway to the Atlantic. 

The trade with Japan in ?‘aw cotton is comparatively new and rapidly increasing, 
as the manufacture of cotton fabrics in that Empire is developing immensely. Japan 
can purchase a short staple cotton in India, but must place her main dependence 
upon the American staple. This will go to her through the Canal, furnishing return 
cargoes to steamships carrying Asiatic goods to our Gulf Ports. This trade has an 
immense future, for it means the supply of 47,000,000 people with cheap clothing and 
other cotton fabrics. 

In no part of the world are coal and iron found in greater proximity than in 
Alabama, and that section of the Union can supply the Pacific Coast and Pacific 
Islands with great facility through the Canal. This will be a great benefit to us, until 
these industries can be developed here. All the steam coal needed on the Canal and 
at the Naval Station on Lake Nicaragua can be thus supplied with an excellent article 
at very low prices, towed there in barges from Mobile. 

The fisheries of the Northwest Pacific Coast and Islands have a great future. The 
discoveries of fishing banks already made by the United States steamship “ Albatross' 
prove this assertion and the exploration has only been started. Although overland 
railways will largely deal with this industry, supplying the interior of the Continent 
by the service of refrigerator cars, the Canal will offer a cheap highway for fishing 
vessels to and from the Atlantic coasts, carrying homeward their own catch, using 
San Franciseo or other Pacific Coast ports as points of departure for the homeward 
voyage 

The Pacific Coast needs a desirable immigration. This the railways have been 
unable to develop; it has always cost too much to get here, and Eastern localities have con¬ 
sequently received general preference. While our people have a conviction that our immi¬ 
gration laws are much too lax and that a bad citizen in Europe makes a worse citizen here, 
the fact remains that the Canal will be largely used by European and Atlantic Coast immi¬ 
grants who will settle up our idle lands, open our mines and create new industries ; 
largely a consuming class. And our position warrants us in expecting that we shall 
receive the best class of settlers, because it will still cost more to get here from Europe 
than the Atlantic seaboard. Our lands will gradually be subdivided and we shall no 
longer see the abnormal spectacle of a magnificent valley like that of the Sacramento 
decreasing in population, and in small land holdings. The Canal will create an urgent 
demand for American built shipping and for seamen to man it. It is in fact, admitted 
that the tonnage via Canal in the American coastwise trade will be entirely inadequate 
to meet the demand, when the Canal is open and until it can be constructed in our 
shipyards. While steamships will gradually obtain preference, the use of sailing ships 
via Nicaragua Canal, unlike the Suez Canal, is entirely practicable. This maritime 
development will make San Francisco a great seaport and restore to it the position it 
occupied in its early history, but on a greatly enlarged scale. The same remark applies 
to other Pacific Coast ports in a degree corresponding with the facilities they offer and 
the support they receive from their tributary territory. 



AKE NICARAGUA, OMETEPE ISLAND IN THE DISTANCE. 











!3 


I might go on with illustrations but other branches of the subject demand con¬ 
sideration, and they are not needed by the intelligent merchant. It would indeed be a 
difficult, if not an impossible task, to predict all the changes which the construction of 
the canal will inaugurate. It needs the prescience of a statesman; the commercial 
acumen of a merchant, and the technical skill of a navigator, to correctly estimate the 
effect of eliminating a navigation of 10,000 miles for all the maritime nations of the 
World. Such a stupendous change in the geography of the globe must create radical 
changes, but of this we may rest assured; they will be changes for the advantage of 
human progress, for commerce recognizes no nationality, and, more than any other 
agency, tends to unite the human race in the great brotherhood of mutual interest. 
For us, the Canal means the reverse of the Pioneer condition of commercial isolation. 
Already partly destroyed by other agencies, we are halting in the march of progress; 
an arrested development which will be terminated by the completion of the Nicaragua 
Canal. The Canal means development and progress, so far as can now be judged, 
without injury to any existing interest on the Pacific Coast. 

The tolls which commerce can afford to pay for the use of the Canal have been a 
proper question of inquiry. Utilizing the locks by electric lights at night, the Canal 
can pass 20,240,000 tons annually, which can be doubled by duplicating the locks. 
The Suez Canal has passed over 9,000,000 tons annually, producing a revenue of 
15 @ l 9 P er cent. In the estimate of tonnage that will use 'the Nicaragua Canal, the 
coastwise commeree of the United States must always prove an important and increas¬ 
ing factor. Alteady an immense commerce, it has no practical limit until the Great 
Republic shall have been closely populated. No other inter-oceanic canal can compete 
for this immense carrying trade, while Great Britain will make use of both Nicaragua 
and Suez Canals for her colonial trade. 

A careful estimate of the tonnage within the radius of attraction by the Canal in 
1891, made it 8,159,150 tons, but the annual increase is a matter of opinion, and has 
therefore been placed at the low estimate of 6 y 2 per cent, approximately for the inter¬ 
vening period until completion, in five years. In this connection I may state that, 
while the time allowed for construction has been fixed at five years, it may be largely 
reduced by the use of electric lighting, possibly to three years from the active inaugur¬ 
ation of work, the estimate made having been based on a ten hours per day labor. It 
is a noticeable fact that in 1894, of the steamships passing through the Suez Canal, 95 
per cent, continued their passage at night by use of the electric lights, navigating in 
safety; a more difficult problem than the use of electric lights for construction work. 
We have assurances of 8,7305°°° tons for the Nicaragua Canal by the time it can be 
completed; possibly this is an under estimate. 1 his, at $1.85 per ton, (the charge 
now made at Suez) will produce $16,150,500 annual revenue. The cost of mainten¬ 
ance and improvements may be safely estimated $1,500,000 annually, leaving $i 4 >- 
650,500 net revenue, on a cost which should not exceed $100,000,000 and which may 
not be over $80,000,000, if built by the aid of the Government credit. Like the Suez 
Canal, it will be one of the best paying properties in the World. 

The Canal will make large earnings also on through passengers, not only on Euro¬ 
pean immigrants westward, but on tourists. The route will Oe a romantic one, through 
a delightful trade wind climate. There is no finer scenery in the world ; no more 
attractive combination of land and water, than the Nicaragua Lakes and the River San 


14 


Juan, both well remembered by many old Californians. Travellers will always desire 
to pass through the Canal at least once, and, as on a low rate speed, the trip from San 
Francisco to New York or return can be made in fifteen days, it will attract great travel. 

The American continent extending into the Southern Ocean over 21 degrees of 
latitude more than Africa, the navigation around Cape Horn is over 2594 miles longer 
than around the Cape of Good Hope and much more dangerous. The distances saved 
by the canal at Nicaragua are generally much greater than at Suez, a fact which will 
tend to augment its revenue. The Suez Canal diverted an already established commerce 
without much prospect of additional development, while the Nicaragua Canal will de¬ 
velop a commerce already ot large volume, but the tributary nations are largely in their 
infancy of development, and with a certainty of enormous increase in wealth, population 
and commerce. 

There is another source of revenue not heretofore alluded to in public discussion 
of the subject, although of great importance. I refer to the local commerce of Ni¬ 
caragua. The Nicaragua Canal, besides being a great inter-oceanic highway, is an in¬ 
ternal channel of communication and commerce y for a Country with great resources, and 
in this respect is unique: Suez passes through a desert. Immediately that the Canal is 
open the magnificent region surrounding the Nicaragua Lakes will teem with a new life 
and a development of its great resources. It is one of the most productive Countries 
on the globe, producing all the tropical and semi-tropical products, largely timbered 
with cabinet hard woods, rich in mines of gold and silver, and blessed with a splendid 
climate, as will hereafter be proven. I do not hazard much in the assertion that, 
within ten years after the opening of the Canal, this local traffic will produce enough 
revenue to pay all operating expenses, and the nation that builds the Canal will have 
the greatest part of this trade. 

The diversion of commerce from Pacific Coast ports by means of the Canal has been 
occasionally stated as against its utility, but on careful examination there will be found 
no reason 10 apprehend this to any extent. As before stated, so far from Asiatic com¬ 
merce being diverted, it will enter our portals, and we shall have the advantage of 
location in distribution eastward overland, until it meets the same class of merchandise 
coming up the Mississippi Valley, from the Canal. Australian Commerce to Europe 
and our Atlantic Coast will certainly go via Canal, but this will work no injury to us, 
for now it goes either via Suez Canal or Cape of Good hope, while our location should 
enable us to develope a large direct trade with Australasia. Hawaiian commerce 
should, under natural conditions always be controlled by American Pacific Ports, as 
the interchange of products is natural and mutually beneficial. Occasional cargoes 
will go from the Hawaiian Islands through the Canal, to Atlantic Ports, but this is now 
the case via Cape Horn, several sugar cargoes going that way this season. But this 
will be abnormal under any condition which can now be foreseen. 

The commerce of Central America, except in regard to such demand as we have 
for the products of that section, is constantly striving for an Atlantic outlet. The 
Tehuantepec Railway the Guatemala Northern Railway to Livingston, and the Costa 
Rica Railway to Port Limon, (both on the Atlantic) and the Panama Railway, all facil¬ 
itate the movement of Central American products to the Atlantic. Under no circum¬ 
stances can we expect to attract this European and Atlantic Coast demand for Central 
American products to our Pacific Coasts ports; they can be transported cheaper by the 
routes named at this time and cheaper still through the Canal. 


'5 


But the Canal will rapidly develop the resources and increase the population of 
all Central America, Nicaragua taking precedence in this particular as it is to be the 
first scene of a new activity. With these improved conditions will come an increase of 
commerce with United States Pacific Ports, and our Pacific Coast railway systems will 
find it to their advantage to distribute Eastward, the products of Central America in 
competition with Gulf Ports distributing Northward, or Atlantic Coast Ports Westward. 
The advantage of location will be with us, and we shall have to pay no Canal toll, while 
the increasing wealth and population of Central America will take from us in vastly 



MARKET SCENE AT GRANADA CITY, ON LAKE NICARAGUA. 


increased quantity the products we are now sending there ; flour, canned fruits and 
meats, California wines, and many other articles now being shipped there by every 
steamer. And Central American products will be marketed here in greater quantity as 
a merchandise basis of exchange. A diversion of commerce from our Pacific Coast 
Ports has never been mentioned in any other connection. But I may state here, that 
it is an erroneous view of the Canal to consider it solely for our benefit, and such a 
position, besides being false in fact, would defeat its construction. In a general way 
I may state that commercially, the Canal will benefit first, the Pacific Coast of North 















































I 















































































































































































































































































































































America ; second, the Gulf Coast of the United States ; third, the East Coast of the 
United States ; fourth, the Valley of the Mississippi and the great middle West of the 
United States ; fifth, the West Coast of South America and the Pacific Islands. Other 
parts of the World would be benefited also, in less degree, and the commerce of all 
maritime nations will be greatly facilitated thereby. Its advantages, otherwise than 
commercial I shall illustrate hereafter. 

To the shipping merchant, seaman and stevedore the advantages of carrying mer¬ 
chandise without “ breaking bulk” are very well known. It is the rough handling of 
packages in transshipment, and their exposure to a tropical, often also to a moisture 
laden climate, that has proven the principal deterrent to the popular use of the Isthmus 
transits for freight. The additional expense is also to be considered, but it is doubtful 
if the prior consideration is not the most important. The Canal will make this 
unnecessary, and the merchandise placed on board will remain untouched until 
delivery at destination. Wheat and other grains can be shipped in bulk as is now done 
on the Atlantic, thus saving the onerous expense of sacking, which must be borne by 
the producer, amounting to about one dollar per ton. It may be safely asserted that 
approximately ninety per cent, of claims for damage on freight are due to handling and 
ten per cent, to bad stowage and sea-damage, if total losses be excluded. 

It is no small honor to the Chamber of Commerce and to the Board of Trade of 
San Francisco that these two organizations are the pioneer promoters of the Nicaragua 
Canal, from a commercial stand point. Illustrious statesmen have pointed out its ad¬ 
vantages to our Country, and military experts have demonstrated its necessity to the 
national safety of the Great Republic, but our merchants have been the first to present 
it to the commercial world as the great project of the age. In 1880 I was daily requested 
to explain wherein the Canal would benefit us; in 1895 1 am asked on all sides what 
are the prospects for its completion and it is universally recognized as worthy of the 
support of all who wish well to the Pacific Coast, and of all patriotic Americans who 
desire to see their country holding its place and fulfilling its destiny among the great 
nations of the earth. 


THE NICARAGUA CANAL, 


Description anil History. 

The Republic of Nicaragua lies between Honduras and Salvador on the north and 
Costa Rica on the south. It has a coast line of 250 miles on the Atlantic and 185 miles 
on the Pacific Ocean. From ocean to ocean it is 200 miles wide on its northern boun¬ 
dary and 120 miles wide on its southern boundary. It extends from latitude io° to 15 0 
north. Its area is 49,000 square miles, (about three times the area of Switzerland) and 
its estimated population is 450,000 souls. The eastern coast was first sighted by 
Columbus in 1 503. It was first visited and explored by the Spanish military adventurer, 
Gil Gonzales Davila in 1522. In 1821 the five Central American Republics, including 
Nicaragua, became independent of Spain, and formed a confederacy which was dis¬ 
solved in 1839, & i n ce which they have been independent. The Republic derives its 
name from Nicarao a native chief found on the shores of the great lake by the Spanish 
discoverer, who called the lake Nicarao-agua, from which came the abbreviation Nic¬ 
aragua. 

From Cape Horn to the Arctic Ocean a continuous mountain chain rears its peaks 
between the oceans, under various names, but always the same longest of all mountain 
systems in the world, But in Nicaragua occurs a freak of nature. The mountain range 
is broken and decreased in elevation. Two great lakes Nicaragua and Managua, de¬ 
press the continental back bone and furnish the lowest level between the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans, from Cape Horn to the Arctic Ocean; 152 6-12 feet above mean sea 
level. The next lowest is at Panama 295 feet, and Tehuantepec has an elevation of 
855 feet. Lake Nicaragua is no miles long and 40 miles wide. Standing on its 
western shore, its waves beat at the traveller’s feet with the cadence of an ocean surf 
and the opposite shore is out of sight, It is from 12 to 240 feet deep and free from 
hidden dangers, except that its waters are infested with sharks, having probably come 
from the Carribbean sea and gradually became habituated to the new environment, as 
in the case of the sharks in the lakes of the Feejee Islands. 

Lake Managua is thirty miles long and fifteen wide, of an irregular shape and 

twenty-four feet higher than Lake Nicaragua. It is proposed to unite these two lakes 

by a canal with one lock to overcome the difference in elevation. This work is included 

in the Canal Company’s contract with the Government. These two great lakes and the 

consequent low summit level between the oceans, give to Nicaragua an especially fine 

climate—it may be called a marine tropical climate. The trade winds from the Atlantic 

blow, with rare exceptions, across the republic, minimizing malarial influences and 

lowering the thermometer, so that at night one needs a blanket to sleep comfortably 

in the vicinity of the lakes. 

* 

Among the many advantages possessed by this favored land, there is one which far 
exceeds in value her resources of mine, field and forest. Standing midway between the 
northern and southern extremities of the continents, the barrier there presented to direct 
communication between the two great oceans, and the countries bordering upon them is, 
as before stated, the lowest that exists anywhere on the American Continent. The import 


1 9 


of this great fact to the commercial world remains to be considered. We merely remark 
that Nicaragua is on the highway of the world's future commerce , and in a military point of 
view far exceeds Gibraltar in importance. It is, in fact, the key between the Atlantic and 
the Pacific — the path of empire is through its gateway for the nation that holds the key ! 

The Republic is divided into thirteen Departments, each governed by a Prefect. 
Otherwise the form of government is similar to that of the United States; there is entire 
liberty of religious belief and much attention is paid to public education. There are 
several small cities in the Republic ; Leon with 30,000 inhabitants ; Granada with 
15,000 ; Chinandega with 12,000 ; Managua , the capital city, with 10,000 ; Masaya 
with 8,000 ; Rivas, four miles from the Canal, Western Division, with 7,000 ; Mata- 
galpa , (in the famous coffee district) with 4,000 ; and I^a Libertad with 4,000. Besides 
these there are several smaller seaport towns; Corinto , lately the scene of British 
military occupation and evacuation ; Brito and San Juan del Sur on the Pacific, and 
San Juan del Norte and Bluefields on the Atlantic, as well as others of minor import¬ 
ance. There are few good roads in the country, tiansportation being slow and expensive, 
except by water and on the two excellent railways, which are well managed, as well as 
owned, by the Government. The Republic was primarily settled on the Pacific Coast, 
but lately the industry of banana and cocoanut growing has so increased on the so- 
called Mosquito Coast, that two regular lines of weekly steamers run to New Orleans and 
twice a month to Colon, and the Eastern coast is being rapidly settled. Between the 
Atlantic and Lake Nicaragua there are rich mineral districts with gold and silver mines 
which have been worked for many years, two of them being owned in London. This 
section of the Republic is also largely devoted to cattle raising, and the Republic pro¬ 
duces all the products of a tropical and semi-tropical climate. 

The availability of the Nicaragua route for an inter-oceanic highway was indicated 
as early as 1550 by the Spanish explorer, Antonio Calvao. Since 1825 the subject has 
been repeatedly presented to the Governments of Nicaragua and the United States. In 
1844 Don Francisco Castellan, a citizen of Nicaragua, visited France, and the project 
was by him called to the attention of Louis Napoleon, who published a pamphlet on the 
subject, but no active efforts followed. In 1849 Cornelius Vanderbilt and associates 
obtained a concession for a ship canal, and a remarkably correct survey was made for 
them by Colonel Childs of Philadelphia, which was pronounced feasible by United 
States Government and English engineers. 

In 1852 a series of explorations were commenced, covering the whole isthmus, 
partly on private account, but mostly under instructions of the United States Govern¬ 
ment. In 1872-73 complete surveys of Nicaragua and Panama routes were made by 
Commander Lull, United States Navy, with Mr. A. G. Menocal as the Chief Engineer. 
The result of their instrumental surveys was the condemnation of the Panama route and 
the official approval of the Nicaragua route for a lock canal, using the great lake as its 
summit level. Thoir surveys demonstrated the possibility of a lock canal at Panama 
with fourteen feet more elevation than at Nicaragua, and at greater cost. It entirely con¬ 
demned the Panama route for a sea level canal, as afterwards attempted by the French. 
General Grant, himself a civil engineer of no mean pretensions, wrote in the North 
American Review of February, 1881, that if practicable at all, the Panama Canal would 
cost over $400,000,000. He is also on record as asserting that every dollar put into 
the Panama Canal would be lost to the investors. 



DREDGES AT WORK—LAND VIEW. EMBANKMENT OF CANAL AND CONSTRUCTION RAILWAY TRAIN. 


















2 I 


In May 1879 Lesseps called together the International Canal Congress at Paris 
for the assumed purpose of consultation as to the route to be adopted. The United 
States Government appointed Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen, United States Navy, and 
Mr. A. G. Menocal, C. E. as our delegates. It appearing that the Congress was con¬ 
trolled in the interest of parties who had acquired a concession for the Panama route, 
and that a fair discussion and vote was not wanted, our delegates declined to vote. It 
subsequently appeared that a French syndicate, including Count de Lesseps and 
Gustave Blanchet, C. E. had made a prior application to the Nicaragua Government 
for a concession, and failing there, had taken up the Wyse-Turr concession from the 
Columbian Government for a canal at Panama, subject to the prior rights of the Panama 
Railroad Company, and these concessionaires had offered Lesseps 5 inducements to join 
them in promoting the enterprise. 

The failure of Lesseps 5 application to the Nicaragua Government recalls an 
interesting incident. At that time Fernando Guzman was President of Nicaragua. 
Educated in the United States and France, he was a wise and patriotic statesman. 
The French Canal bill was introduced simultaneously in' the Chamber of Deputies and 
Senate. It passed the former, and was lost by one vote in the latter A motion to 
reconsider was made and the Senate adjourned. President Guzman, when informed 
of the result, sent for the Senator who moved for reconsideration and, while disclaim¬ 
ing any right to interfere with the action of the Senate, informed him that, unless he 
was confident of enough votes to pass the bill over the veto, it would be time wasted. 
The Senator expressed suprise and asked for a reason, as he deemed the Canal a great 
benefit to Nicaragua. Guzman answered by asking him “ if he remembered the French 
military occupation of Mexico and their attempt to destroy the Republic there,” 
remarking also that, if they built the Canal they would ultimately control the country, 
and treat Nicaragua as they had treated Mexico ; that the Americans “ want the Canal 
and will not destroy our Government 55 and if the French did not build it, the American 
people or Government would. This failure of the French to obtain a Canal concession 
from Nicaragua was sedulously concealed, while the Panama Canal was being floated, and 
his incident answers the oft repeated inquiry why did not Lesseps go to Nicaragua if it 
is so much the best route for a ship canal ? 

In 1880 a “Provisional Canal Society 55 was formed at New York including Gen. 
Grant, Gen. McLellan, Admiral Ammen, Frederick Billings and others. In May 1880 
the Society obtained a Canal concession from the Nicaraguan Government and in Dec. 
1881 a bill was introduced by Senator Miller of California, and Mr. Kasson of Iowa 
(formerly our Minister to Austria) for an inter-oceanic canal at Nicaragua under control 
of the United States Government. This bill was bitterly opposed by the Panama Canal 
Company, by Captain Eads with his “ship railroad 55 scheme, and by the overland 
railways. Meanwhile the Administration of President Arthur was secretly negotiating 
a canal treaty with Nicaragua for construction on Government account, with a joint 
sovereignty over the Canal line and the right of fortifying terminals. The so called Za- 
vala-Frelinghuysen treaty was ratified by the Nicaraguan Senate, but was withdrawn 
by President Cleveland from the United States Senate, the reasons assigned being a fear 
of foreign complications and the departure from precedents in legislation. Had this 
treaty been ratified the Canal would have been completed in 1887. The friends of the 
enterprise were not disheartened, but their attempt to construct with American private 


22 


capital were frustrated mainly by the failure of the Marine Bank of New York, which 
also ruined General Grant financially. 

But the demand for an inter-oceanic canal was steadily increasing, as it has sub¬ 
sequently increased, until it has become a national demand, recognized by both great 
political parties, and the facility of construction at Nicaragua had been demonstrated by 
repeated surveys with instruments of precision. But this concession lapsed, and in 1886 
was formed the “ Nicaragua Canal Association” and a new concession was obtained 
from Nicaragua and Costa Rica, a payment of $100,000 gold being made as an evidence 
of good faith. Surveying was resumed in 1887 under the auspices of the new association, 
for the purpose of developing every possible improvement in location, and borings of the 
canal excavations to its bottom, were made at every thousand feet. The labors of this 
survey may be illustrated by the fact that, although the canal in excavation is only 26^ 
miles, not less than 4000 miles of survey were made, including cross sections, embank¬ 
ments locks, construction railways, breakwaters, etc. 

The Nicaragua Canal Construction Company was incorporated September 21st, 
1887, under the Presidency of Francis A. Stout, Esq., subsequently succeeded by A. 
C. Cheney, Esq., and by Hon. Warner Miller. The Maritime Canal Company of 
Nicaragua was incorporated by act of the Congress of the United States, approved 
February 20th, 1889, by President Cleveland. Hon. Hiram Hitchcock and Thomas 
B. Atkins Esq., have baen respectively, President and Secretary of this Company since 
its organization. This Company made a contract with the Construction Company for 
construction, and the work was proceeded with until the world wide financial panic of 
1893, when the Construction Company suspended, and its affairs having been liquidated 
by a Receiver, the contract for construction has been awarded to “ The Nicaragua Com¬ 
pany,” of which John R. Bartlett Esq. is President. Since the present concession from 
Nicaragua and Costa Rica, bills for construction with the aid of the Government of the 
United States have been introduced in the 51st and 52d Congress, but neither came to a 
vote. At the second session of the 53d Congress, under President Cleveland, a bill was 
introduced, which, with slight amendments passed the Senate and on January 25th, 
1895, by a vote of 31 to 21 it was sent to the House for concurrence, without favorable 
result. The introduction of these bills was not obtained by the promoters of the Canal, 
but originated in the Senate Committee, as stated in its report. Meanwhile Congress 
has authorized the appointment of a technical commission of Civil Engineers to again 
examine the Canal line and to make a report to the President. This Commission has 
completed its examination and has recently returned to the United States. 

Turning from this tedious history of delays procured largely by interests adverse 
to the public welfare, a brief description of the Canal, on which four and a half mill¬ 
ions have been already expended, is in order. 

Description. 

The Nicaragua Canal may be briefly described as a summit level of navigation in 
fresh water, 153j$ miles long, no feet above the sea level, reaching within 3J4 
miles of the Pacific and 12 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. The total length of 
navigation is 169j4 miles; there will three lift locks at each end of the summit 













2 4 


level. It may be properly divided into four divisions ; the Eastern; the San Francisco; 
the River and Lake , and the Western. 

The Eastern division from the Atlantic to the San Francisco basin, i Sys miles, 
contains three Eastern locks. Three miles beyond the upper lock is the heaviest cut 
on the work, 2 !, / 10 miles long, through rock averaging 141 feet to canal bottom, and 
requiring four years work if daylight alone be used. This practically measures the 
period necessary to complete the canal, as the work at all other points can be com¬ 
pleted in less time and simultaneously. It is probable that by the use of electric 
lighting, the work on the Canal can be greatly expedited, but under ordinary conditions 
it has been conservatively estimated as needing five years for completion by ten hours 
per day labor, allowing for delays. The rock from the Eastern divide above alluded 
to, is to be utilized in the break water at San Juan del Norte (Greytown); at the 
Ochoa dam and to line the embankments in the San Francisco division, which extends 
from the divide to Ochoa, i2 l / 2 miles. This division utilizes the depressions of four 
small streams, which are used for canal purposes by the construction of retaining em¬ 
bankments, thus saving excavation, and creating a navigable channel much wider and 
deeper than the excavated canal. At the western end of this division we come to the 
Ochoa dam across the River San Juan, 1900 feet long and 70 feet high, (maximum) 
raising the surface of the river 56 feet, or, to the lake level, less four feet, which allows 
about three quarters of an inch per mile for a slow current from the lake over the dam, 
probably about three quarters of a mile per hour. 

I^ake and River Division , 121.04 miles. The River San Juan discharges about 
20,000 cubic^ feet water per second. It is a river of clear, fresh water 200 to 400 
yards wide—a larger stream than the Sacramento in ordinary stages, but unlike it in 
never being flooded by excessive high water, the lake regulating its flow of water, 
by the Ochoa dam, slack water navigation is obtained to the lake with 4feet ex¬ 
cavation for the 24 miles nearest the lake. The width of this inundated river navigation 
will vary with the conformation of the land, from the present width to half a mile 
or more. Some of the bends must be cut off to give a radius easy of navigation for 
the largest ships. There will be ample space in nearly all this division for ships 
to pass each other safely at a speed of eight miles per hour, while in the lake full 
speed can be maintained. Dredging in soft mud or silt deposit will be necessary at the 
Eastern end of the lake for 14 miles, averaging about 10 feet. The lake navigation is 
56 miles. Dredging will be necessary for 1400 feet at its western shore. 

Western Division — I^ake to Pacific Ocean 17.04 mites. Of this distance nj 4 
miles will be in excavation and 5.54 miles in the Tola Basin, a depression of 4000 
acres which is flooded 30 to 70 ft. by a retaining dam 70 ft. high and 1800 ft. long. 
The use of depressions on the canal line is only possible on a surface canal, and has 
been made use of to great advantage by the engineers on the Nicaragua surveys. 

The Port of Brito on the Pacific has to be created, but this can be done without 
risk and at moderate cost. It somewhat resembles Port Harford on the California 
Coast, except that the landing is on low ground, easily excavated. A breakwater 
900 feet long will be extended from the headland and a shorter from and perpendicular 
to the beach enclosing a harbor of about 100 acres, which, with the enlarged prism of 
the canal contiguous thereto, will create all the harbor needed, especially as the splendid 
harbor in the Tola basin will be only 3J4 miles distant, and being fresh water will be 


25 


generally preferred. I may here remark that this advantage of a fresh water canal 
cannot be overestimated, both in the cleaning of animal and vegetable growths on the 
bottoms of iron and steel ships; in the abundant supply for boilers and general use, 
and in the prevention of damage by the toredo-navalis and limnoria, which so rapidly 
destroy timber, especially in tropical sea water. 

The Port of San Juan del Norte (or Greytown) at the Atlantic terminus was a fine 
harbor thirty-five years ago, but has been damaged by silt deposit from the Rio San 
Juan, and by drifting sands of the ocean beach. The plans for the restoration of this 
harbor involves a cost of $2,550,667. A breakwater about 3000 feet long has to be 
constructed to protect the entrance from the drifting sands outside, and the channel to lee¬ 
ward thereof dredged to a depth of 30 feet minimum. About 1000 feet of this jetty 
has been already constructed, and the success which has attended the work thus far 
gives assurance of the ultimate results anticipated when the seaward end reaches the 
6 j 4 fathom curve. The restoration of this harbor was the most difficult problem of 
the Canal, there being nothing else in the work difficult of execution, the problem be¬ 
ing merely one of finances. 

The Port of San Juan del Norte is often miscalled Greytown, a name distasteful 
to Nicaraguans, having been first used when the British Government seized the Port 
and placed there Sir George Grey as military Governor. The eastern seaboard of 
Nicaragua was evacuated by Great Britain on the ratification cf the Clayton-Bulwer 
Treaty, which our Government contends is now practically discarded, having been re¬ 
peatedly violated by Great Britain ; but it has never been formally abrogated. 

The capacity of the Canal will be 20,440,000 tons which can be doubled by dupli¬ 
cating the locks. The Suez Canal has passed in 1894 8,059,106 tons, although this 
was considerably exceeded in 1891. 

The amount received from tolls in 1894 was $14,770,081 ; receipts from passengers 
not stated; rate of toll averaged exactly $1.83 per ton. The Nicaragua Canal will 
open in 1900 with an assured tonnage of 8,730,000 tons, which will rapidly increase. 
The time of passing through the Canal is placed at twenty-eight hours for steamers or 
sailing vessels in tow, including lockages. 

The fact that the Nicaragua Canal has the great advantage of being operated with 
fresh water has already been alluded to. The destructive work of the “ teredo navalis’ 
and of the “limnoria” will be unknown, and all wooden structures underwater will 
become comparatively permanent improvements, whereas in tropical sea water their 
life would not be over two to three years Of greater importance still is the advantage 
to iron shipping. The rapidity with which the bottoms of iron and steel ships foul in 
sea water is well known. Indeed, since we have commenced the construction of an iron 
and steel navy, the question of docking has become one of importance and expense. An 
iron ship should be docked every six months if her bottom is to be kept in good order; 
otherwise not only is more fuel consumed and her speed greatly retarded, but the bottom 
plates become “ pitted ” and if too long foul, ruined. It is a well known fact that marine 
growths on a ship’s bottom when taken into fresh water at once die, and when the ship 
moves drop off. The inner harbors of the Canal and the Lake will become favorite sta¬ 
tions for the cleaning of ships’ bottoms and a saving can thereby be made in the expense 
of docking often equal to the tolls charged for the use of the Canal. It will also be no 


26 


small advantage that naval vessels awaiting orders on the Canal will always be prepared 
for sea duty with clean bottoms and boilers full of fresh water. 

The cost of the Canal has been very carefully estimated by Engineer Menocal, and 
by two Boards of Consulting Engineers, one in the United States and one in England. 
Menocal makes a cost of $65,084,176 exclusive of bankers’ commissions, discounts on 
securities and interest during construction. The English Board exceeded this by six 
hundred thousand dollars, a remarkable concurrence. The American Board ot Super¬ 
vising Engineers out of an abundant caution took Menocal’s estimates, and where they 
were found higher than their own retained them, but rejecting them when lower than 
their own, and substituting their own figures. In this way they raised the cost to 
$37,799,570, and conclude their report with the statement that the enterprise is full 
of promise. All these estimates include a 25 per cent, contingency. As a commercial 
problem I have always preferred to anticipate necessary a cost of $100,000,000, which 
will make the Canal fully as profitable as Suez, which is the best large investment in 
the world. 


That great work the Chicago Drainage and Ship Ca?ial which will unite Chicago 
to the Mississippi at Alton, is being built at a cost very much less than the Nicaragua 
estimates. The improvements made since Menocal’s estimates of 1872, in excavating 
machinery are very striking. I append a comparison of his prices for work compared 


with the prices now being paid at Chicago: 

NICARAGUA ESTIMATES — 1872. 

Per cubic yard. 


Dredging.20 to 30 cts. 

Earth excavation .40 to 50 cts. 

Rock “ . $1 25 to $1.50 

Rock subaqueous.$5.00 

Embankments, earth from cuts ... .20 to 30 cts. 

“ rock from cuts.40 to 50 cts. 

“ earth from cuts.70 cts. 

“ rock from cuts.$1.5u 

Masonry concrete and stone.$6 to $10 


CHICAGO DRAINAGE CANAL— 1895. 

Per cubic yard. 


Dredging.51 to 8 cts. 

Earth excavation on bank.19 cts. 

Rock “ .74 cts. 

“ “ minimum.59 cts. 

Earth excavation carried away as far as ne¬ 
cessary av.30 cts. 

Rock, subaqueous.$1.75 


The Chicago Drainage Canal has forty miles in excavation, and one hundred and 
twenty-one feet lockage elevation. The Nicaragua Canal has twenty-six and three- 
quarter miles in excavation and one hundred and ten feet lockage elevation. The re¬ 
markable decrease in the cost of Chicago work shows the advance in the science of Canal 
excavation by machinery in 25 years, and is a happy augury for the Nicaragua Canal, 
although there must be less difference than above indicated, for at Chicago every con¬ 
venience is at hand for cheap work whereas these conveniences must be exported to Nic¬ 
aragua. But it proves conclusively that the cost of the Nicaragua Canal should not ex¬ 
ceed the estimates, and may be less than Menocal’s figures. 

The splendid profession ot the Civil Engineer finds in the Nicaragua Canal a source 
of gratification and delight. I have conversed with very many practical men who have 
passed over the route, and when they have been shown the skill with which the project 
has been developed, the laborious surveys made, the borings of canal prism to its bot¬ 
tom and other details, their admiration has been unbounded. As remarked by Senator 
Morgan of Alabama, “the most fervid imagination is surprised and captured by this 
splendid reality.” The reader will find pleasure in comparing the length and altitude of 
the instrumental surveys made by the United States Government across the various 
American inter-oceanic routes. 


\ 


















RANCH HOUSE NEAR CANAL LINE. COCOA PALM AND BREAD FRUIT TREE 




















































Altitude feet. 


S 


Name. Length miles. 

1. Tehuantepec.. 150 

2. Nicaragua. 169 

3. Panama. 42 

4. San Bias. 30 

5. Caledonia-Tuyra. 87 

6. Altrate-Tuyra. 115 

7. Altrate Truando. 125 

8. Altrate-Napipi. 180 


755 

152 

295 

1H5 

1008 

800 

950 

778 


Reconnaisance surveys were made at three other routes on the Darien Isthmus. It 
will be noted that Nicaragua has by far the lowest elevation and is the only fresh water 
canal. The San Bias route is the shortest between the oceans ; in fact the tide waters 
of the Pacific and Atlantic there approach each other within twenty-three miles, but a 
mountain barrier stands in the way, with a very bad climate to aid it in forbidding ca- 
nalazation at that point. 

The cross section of the Nicaragua Canal is 5712 square feet against 3700 square 
feet at Suez. 

The locks are now arranged for a length of 650 feet, depth 30 feet, width 80 feet. 
The lifts are as follows : 


Lock No. 1, Eastern Division, 31 feet; Lock No. 4, Western Division, 42.5 feet ; 

Lock No. 2, Eastern Division, 30 feet; Lock No. 5, Western Division, 42.5 feet; 

Lock No. 3, Eastern Division, 45 feet ; Lock No. 6, Western Division, variable. 

Lock No. 6, Western Division, has a variable lift, owing to the rise and fall of tide at 

the Pacific terminus of the Canal, but averages 25 feet lift, the lake level being main¬ 
tained at no feet. The apparent discrepancy in lift of locks on Atlantic and Pacific 
Division is caused by the allowance for regulated flow of the San Juan River from the 
Lake to the Ochoa dam. Forty-five minutes are allowed for each lockage, the ex- 
/ perience at the Sault St. Marie Canal having proven this sufficient. The supply of 
\ lockage water is, under the utmost capacity of the Canal, over ten times the demand 
that can be made upon it—the magnificent inland sea of Nicaragua draining a water 
shed of over 8000 square miles, with an average rain fall of 55 inches per annum, and 
its area of 1,400 square miles, completely regulating the outflow through the outlet to 
the Atlantic—the San Juan River. A guard gate will be placed on the Western 
Division near the Lake, which can be closed when necessary to empty the locks near 
the Pacific, and a similar gate may be needed above the locks on Eastern Division. 

In the study of this question there is at first a preference for a sea level canal over 
a lock canal , and indeed were it possible to imitate nature and thus construct a passage 
way at the American Isthmus, at a cost or within the time that is within compre¬ 
hension, it would be preferable. At Suez it was feasible because of the simplicity of 
the conditions—a cut through the sand, with a summit 85 feet above sea level, and 
practically without a rainfall. But, at the American Isthmus the important question 
of drainage has to be considered as a controlling factor, the rainfall being heavy. A 
sea level canal is necessarily the drainage ditch of the entire vicinage , while a lock, 
surface canal, does not disturb in an appreciable degree the natural drainage of the sur¬ 
rounding territory. At the Panama Isthmus it has proven, as was foreseen by the 
United States Government Engineers, an insurmountable obstacle , and, while the rain- 










29 


fall there is very heavy at times, 260 inches annually at Colon and about 85 inches at 
the city of Panama and with the Chagres River flood waters an unmanageable factor, 
it is a question if the necessary lockage water can be provided. There is, in fact, far 
too much water, but it is unmanageable. 

It is the unique existence of that magnificent inland sea at Nicaragua, that solves 
this question —an abundance of water under control, at all times. Without it no Ameri¬ 
can Isthmus Canal would be possible, unless, by a lock Canal at Panama under 
disadvantageous conditions or by tunneling one of the Darien routes, and for a ship 
canal tunneling has been condemned by all engineers, as being unsafe and in every 
way unacceptable to the commercial world that will pay for the use of the Canal. 

As above stated, it is the great lake , and its outlet to the Atlantic , with the low 
summit level that makes the Nicaragua Canal a commercial possibility. How much 
nature has there done to aid the Engineer is proven by the fact that in the natural con¬ 
dition , a six hundred ton steamer can leave the Atlantic and approach within 12 
miles of the Pacific! Is it surprising that, for ages the Nicaragua route has been 
considered the Gateway between the Oceans, and that the great nations look upon it with 
envious eyes? It is recognized as one of ihe keys of the World's commerce and a military 
position of unique importance. The mind of the investigator is entranced with the 
splendid reality. Nature invites the capitalist and civil engineer to fully solve the 
great problem by the partial solution already offered. 


TIIE NICARAGUA CANAL, 


Its National Importance. 

The political conditions connected with the inter-oceanic canal have been very fully 
discussed by the United States Senate in executive session, and occasionally a fairly 
informed editorial writer has published his opinions thereon, but the general public has 
very little idea of the subject. When President Monroe in December 1823 
enunciated the great national principle now bearing his name as the “ Monroe 
Doctrine,” he referred to military and naval projects by the European Powers form¬ 
ing the “ Holy Alliance.” It was well understood then that European Powers intended 
an aggressive policy against the infant American Republics. There was a stalwart 
Americanism in those days and patriotism was not considered a vulgarity by Anglo¬ 
maniacs on the Atlantic seaboard. Our Government informed European Powers that 
“ we could not view any interposition for the pin-pose of controllings in any manners 
the destinies of independent American powers, in any other light than as a manifesta¬ 
tion of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.” The language is plain 
enough, and the sentiment of the American people on this question is well understood. 
It took a practical shape when Sheridan, at the conclusion of our civil war, was 
ordered to the Rio Grande with 100,000 veteran troops, and Louis Napoleon diplo¬ 
matically notified that it would be agreeable to us to have him withdraw his French 
troops from Mexico, in which reasonable request he acquiesced. This practical appli¬ 
cation of the Monroe Doctrine was a necessity to our national safety and a precedent 
which established it. It has proven the falsity of the assertion that the Monroe Doctrine 
is an intangible theory in our foreign policy, the ivorld knows what it means , but 
aggressive powers, wanting more territory, will occasionally try our self respect and our 
patriotism by the application of test cases, always prepared to recede if we are firm in 
our application of the famous national policy, born from the necessities of our position 
when the nation was comparatively weak, but full of sterling patriotism. 

What reason have European powers to complain of our policy in this respect ? 
If we assume that it is our national ^duty to control the Nicaragua Canal, is not 
our position as reasonable as the control of the Suez Canal by Great Britain ? 
Would that power submit to our interference in the management of the Suez Canal 
or in its political and military control ? If that is her,highway to India, the Nicaragua 
Canal is our highway between integral portions of our country, and, in fact, as well 
expressed by President Hayes, “a part of our coast line.” In 1884 President Arthur 
and Secretary of State Frelinghuysen negotiated the Zavala-Frelinghuysen Treaty with 
Nicaragua, giving our Government the right of joint sovereignty over two and a half 
miles on each side of the Canal, with the right to fortify the terminals—in fact, per¬ 
mitting us to build and own the work jointly with Nicaragua, binding us to its military 
protection. This treaty was withdrawn from our Senate by the successor of Mr. 
Arthur, the present Chief Executive, for reasons which were entitled to respect, and 
this necessitated construction by a company formed for the purpose, and possessed of 
concessions from Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the rights of navigation of a part of the 


[ 



NATIVE HOUSES NEAR SAN JUAN RIVER—CAMP OF U. S. 


SURVEYING CORPS. 


Rio San Juan entitling the latter Republic to an interest in the Canal. Personally I 
much regret that the Canal was not completed under the Zavala-Frelinghuysen treaty, 
but fully appreciating President Cleveland’s reasons, I can see how through the inter¬ 
vention of a Company, the great desideratum of government control can be attained by 
such a use of the national credit as will secure this to the Government, and avoid the 
objectionable features of the Treaty. 

The Nicaragua Canal will be the great highway of our increasing commerce be¬ 
tween the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, and no American statesman has ever admitted 
the possibility of permitting the control of our isthmus transit to any European powerf 
remanding our Navy and American commerce to the 15,000 miles voyage around the 
Cape, at the option of the nation controlling the Canal. Lake Nicaragua occupies a 
position unique in its importance to American interests. Gibraltar, or the Dardanelles 
cannot compare with it in the value of its military position. Upon its bosom naval 
fleets may float in fresh water, with clean bottoms, in a delightful climate, surrounded 
by a territory producing supplies for fleets and armies. Connected by telegraphic cable 
with Washington, such a fleet will be effective in a few days at Samoa and the Hawaiian 
Islands and on the Pacific Coast of America, and at Jamaica, Hayti, Cuba, the Wind¬ 
ward Islands and the Spanish Main on the Atlantic. The Secretary of the Navy has 
stated in his report to the Government that it “ will double the effective force of the 
United States Navy.” This alone would pay for the Canal as a national necessity. 










32 


In the eventualities which may be near at hand in Eastern Asia we cannot afford longer 
play “ the dog in the manger” with so important a work. 

Nicaragua is a sparsely settled country, with great but undeveloped resources, a 
healthful climate, and internal waterways insuring cheap transportation. It will be¬ 
come the theater of great industrial and commercial activity, on the highway of the 
World’s commerce. The nation that supplies the funds to build the Canal will mostly 
control its policy and commerce. The expenditure of the large sums needed for con¬ 
struction, the employment of skilled labor largely from the nation supplying the money, 
and of all available native labor as well, and the resultant influences which always ac¬ 
company capital, are sufficient reasons for the national control alluded to. 

As a result of construction as a private enterprise and with foreign capital, we have 
the incontestable right of foreign military protection to foreign property, and still, our 
national policy is so adverse to such protection, that its enforcement at the Canal 
would be almost equivalent to a declaration of war. At the Panama Isthmus we have 
repeatedly landed United States forces to protect the Panama Railroad. In fact, dur¬ 
ing the first administration of Mr. Cleveland an expeditionary force of United States 
Marines was sent to occupy the Isthmus until peace and protection to life and property 
were assured. It was very creditably ordered and managed, fulfilling our treaty obliga¬ 
tion with Colombia and our duty to the world. If we do not control the Canal by 
construction , we must either subsequently buy or fight for it with the alternative of 
“ taking a back seat ” among the nations of the world ! // V- ^ 

The political history of the Suez Canal should be very instructive to Americans. 
De Lesseps had less excavation than political obstruction, for Great Britain endeavored 
to prevent its completion by every possible means. But, whatever the demerits of the 
Great Frenchman, no one will deny his diplomatic ability and his persistency. These 
characteristics, with the aid of the Khedive and of the Third Napoleon, finally triumphed 
over all obstacles. When the new route to India had been opened it became a necessity 
to Great Britain, and Disraeli secretly bought its control for his Country. It was the 
masterstroke of that great statesman; the most brilliant move he ever made, and will 
always endear his memory to the English heart. When it became the military policy 
of Great Britain to close the Suez Canal, her ironclads filled the waterway and locked 
it to the navigation of the world. No one now expects that England will abandon the 
vantage ground obtained in Lower Egypt and the control of her latest route to India; 
never, unless under the stress of a military force which must conquer the greatest naval 
power of the world. As well abandon Gibraltar, Aden Malta or Esquimault: British 
troops are there to stay, notwithstanding French protests ! 

With this history before our people, have we not a fiational duty to perform in the 
securing of control at Nicaragua? If we neglect this manifest duty can we justly 
blame England if she secures her own interests, to our detriment? If our great com¬ 
petitor for the world’s commerce considers that military conditions permit her occupy¬ 
ing and closing the Suez Canal, why not the Nicaragua Canal? In one case she had 
France, a far more important military power than the United States, as an objector ; in 
the other case she might have the Great Republic—great in resources, but weak in its 
military power, except to resist invasion. Diplomatic objections are not of much value 
against rifled ordnance, and there is no greater lie than the old assertion that “ the pen 


33 


is mightier than the sword ” since nations are always preparing to put away the quill 
and draw the weapon, especially the leading European Powers ! 

The Pacific North West Coast has a much milder climate than the North East 
Atlantic littoral. The warm waters of the great Japan current— 11 the Kuro Siwo ”— 
wash its shores in high northern latitudes and flow southerly near the Oast line 
to the tropics. That brilliant statesman, William H. Seward, with a prescience 
which immortalizes his name, knew the value of Alaska, when he bought it from 
Russia, and he realized that the Pacific Ocean is to be “ the scene of man's greatest 
achievements .” It needs the Canal to inaugurate this brilliant future, when Alaska 
with her great wealth of mines, timber and fisheries shall develop her importance to 
the world. 

Further south and nearer the Nicaragua Canal we find more population and com¬ 
merce, but the same necessity for a cheap waterway to the Atlantic. The great States 
of Washington and Oregon, with their immense resources, halt in their onward march, 
and suffer an arrested development, which no railways can terminate. Their fields 
and forests, their fisheries and mines, are boundless sources of wealth, compara¬ 
tively dormant, and awaiting the magic result of cheap water transportation by a short 
route to the Atlantic Ocean. Isolation is the curse of our commercial position , and we 
appeal to our countrymen in the older sections of the Republic to aid us in the solution 
of the question by the enactment of such legislation as will secure the Nicaragua Canal 
under the control of our Government and for the benefit of its people. 

The Pacific Coast appeals to the patriotism of all Americans ! By journeys over 
trackless plains, and around the Cape of Storms, our Pioneers opened the way and laid 
the foundation for our Pacific Empire. Before they all go over to the silent majority 
they ask that onr Eastern friends will aid them , and at the same time benefit our whole 
country and the commercial world, by securing the speedy construction of the Nicaragua 
Canal. 

To our legislators in Congress we can urge the Canal on the broad ground of the 
national welfare and nationalpi'estige. We ask them to discard party prejudice and the 
fear of a want of precedent : the conditions are unique and the duty plain. 'To such of 
our countrymen as fear the Canal in competition with other transportation interests, we 
respectfully beg a fair consideration of the question in a liberal sense, and a careful 
reading of the subsequent article “ The Nicaragua Canal and the Railroads .” The 
Canal, we are fully confident, will injure no vested interest, and should receive their 
good will and active aid. And we also suggest to them that they are powerless to pre¬ 
vent its construction—at most they can only succeed in placing a foreign control over 
our coast line waterway, to the detriment of our country, by opposing “an American 
Canal under American control .” 


The Problem of Cheap Transportation. 

The question of cheap transportation is at this time attracting more attention than 
any other subject connected with the future of the Pacific Coast; and this may well be 
the case since upon the cheap carriage of the products of our soil and industry to the 
world’s markets depends, very largely, the prosperity of our people. Railways have accom¬ 
plished wonders in this direction, considering what was expected of them in years gone 
by; but this method of transportation has its limitations even where competition exists. 

In the economy of modern civilization railways perform an important and necessary 
function. In the transportation of passengers, mails, specie, and perishable property 
they are indispensable. In a continental country like ours they have become an ab¬ 
solute necessity to our national life in time of peace, and equally so, as a means of de¬ 
fense, in time of war. It has been remarked that no railroad manager knows at how 
low a figure freight can be carried by steam and rail until he tries it ; of course he would 
not be foolish enough to try it unless it became necessary to do so. The Pacific Coast 
has important waterways which are competent to provide for a great part of her internal 
transportation, but selfish influences and public apathy have permitted these natural 
highways to become almost worthless in many instances. 

When the writer arrived at San Francisco in June 1850, the vessel which brought 
him around Cape Horn went to Sacramento City to discharge, sailing up the river, the 
water of which was then so clear that fish could be seen swimming in it. Now, flat-bot¬ 
tom, stern wheel steamers make their way there with difficulty in the dry season and it 
has become a muddy stream. Th£ duty of deepening and improving these internal 
waterways rests upon the Government of the Republic ; and our people should persist¬ 
ently work to secure appropriations for this purpose, and then see that they are judic¬ 
iously expended. Wherever there is interior water-transportation freights are low, every 
one who has freight to transport knows this, and our transportation laws recognize it. 

One of the most striking instances of the effect of cheap water-transportation is found 
at the St. Mary’s Canal, between Lakes Superior and Huron. In the subsequent paper 
herewith presented, “ The Nicaragua Canal and the Railroads ,” the work of this water¬ 
way, its enormous capacity and economy, are fully explained. It is passing 25 per cent, 
more freight annually than the Suez Canal, and is indispensable to the prosperity of that 
section of the country. Railways have there been found incompetent to deal alone with 
the problem of cost which controlled the question of its development and prosperity. 

Leaving the question of internal transportation, we proceed to consider the ques¬ 
tion of ocean carriage where it competes with railways. The following statement of 
comparative cost was furnished me by the late William J. Me Alpine, an eminent civil 
engineer and an unquestioned authority on the subject: 

Cost of Transportation per Ton per Mile, exclusive of Capital Invested. 

1 . Ocean voyages by sail or modern freight steamers. 1 m jn 

2 . Shorter, or voyages of medium length. l.i « 

3. Short coasting voyages. 2 “ 

4. Canals (excluding ship canals). 4 “ 

Each lock is equal to one additional mile. 

5. Smaller canals with greater lockage. g “ 

g. Railways with favoring grades, loads in direction of descending grades, in excess of 

loads ascending. g « 

7. Railways, heavy grades and unfavorable tonnage movement preponderating in one 

direction. 15 « 

8 . Railways of usual grades, and average freight movement each way. 10 “ 










35 



The 


COLONEL SENOR DON EVARISTO CARAZO (DECEASED). 

President of Nicaragua who signed the Canal Concession. 


As an illustration of number six: On the Reading Coal Railroad a locomotive 
exerts the same power to haul a train of one hundred loaded cars to market that it does 
to haul back the empty cars, but this is presented as a somewhat exceptional case. 

Since the above table was formulated, the increase in size of ocean steamships, the 
adoption of triple and quadruple expansion engines for ocean service, and other im¬ 
provements therewith, have still further increased the disparity between the cost of 
transportation by land and sea. There has also been improvement in the manufacture 
of locomotives, but not to the extent developed in the latest marine engines. 

It must be remembered, also, that the differences herein noted are exclusive of 
interest on capital , and, when this enormous difference is considered, the ocean being a 
free highway, and, as a general thing, all waterways comparatively so, it will be ap¬ 
parent how impossible it is for the most favorably located railways to compete with 
water transportation. 

The modern improvements in marine engines applied to large iron steamships 
enable them to compete with vessels propelled by sail alone, especially on short voy- 












ages, under ordinary conditions, the steamship being able to make at moderate speed 
about three to three and a half voyages to one of the sailing vessel in the same period 
and over the same course. It will be noticed, consequently, that sailing ships have the 
best conditions for successfully competing with steam on voyages of great length—for 
instance around Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, in various directions. This 
is, in fact, the last hold of sailing ships in competition with steam upon the great oceans, 
and even this is being successfully contested. It may be further remarked that the 
ocean is free to all, and the expense of improving internal waterways is borne by the 
people at large, through their Government. 

The depth of water at the principal ports of the world has placed a limit on the 
size of ships, and that limit appears to have been reached. It is a striking fact that a 
ship drawing twenty-four feet of water is too large for three-quarters of the harbors of 
the world. The trans-Atlantic steamships of largest tonnage can only pass Sandy Hook 
and Liverpool bars at top of high tide, and the San Francisco bar has spots on it of 
only thirty feet depth, on which deeply laden ships have occasionally struck. It is 
possible that the tonnage may be still further moderately increased by changing the 
model, but the limit in this direction is small, as stability is a desideratum which can¬ 
not be ignored, while excessive stability must be avoided to attain an easy movement 
in a sea way. 

The use of auxiliary steam with full sail power has never been a success in mer¬ 
cantile practice, and, as marine engines have been improved upon and adapted to 
larger ships, has been almost entirely discarded. But the use of sail power as an 
auxiliary can never be economically discarded. It is the cheapest motive power that 
can be used afloat, and while it has been fashionable of late to dispense with it for 
naval purposes, the fallacy of so doing is acknowledged by many naval experts. On 
the long voyages by steam, especially through the trade wind regions, and for naval 
vessels cruising in time of peace either full or auxiliary sail power is too valuable and 
economical to be permanently discarded, being an element of safety as well as stability 
and making the cruiser, if necessary, independent of fuel supply, which is not always 
obtainable and is always expensive. 

While nature thus appears to have placed a limit on the tonnage of sea-going ships, 
there appears no known limit to the method or power of propulsion. In the develop¬ 
ment of electricity we may look for a motive power applicable to navigation. Electric 
ships appear to be a certainty in the near future, since that power has been already 
successfully applied to the propulsion of small vessels for interior navigation. Under 
any circumstances that can be foreseen, however, water transportation will continue to 
be the cheapest known to commerce, and in the development of maritime commerce 
San Francisco must make its mark in the history of modern cities. Upon its maritime 
commerce will always very largely depend the prosperity of the Pacific Coast. Three- 
fifths of the globe is covered with navigable waters, affording a basis of cheap trans¬ 
portation, inviting the energy and the skill of mankind. Navigation has opened the 
path to empire, and its development creates a brave and hardy race, ready to uphold 
the liberties of the nation and the honor of its flag 

As an example of the latest practice in ocean navigation by steam, the following 
examples of first-class passenger and freight steamships are presented. 

A typical British cargo steamship, now running between New York and England, 


37 


of 8,300 register ton 5 , carries 10,000 tons dead weight when fully laden, at a round 
voyage expense of $26,000, or $1.30 cost per ton across the Atlantic ; 3165 knots, on 
an average speed of 13 knots (faster than the most economical speed, which maybe 
placed at 9J 4 to 10 knots per hour). She should do better on the smooth water 
voyage through the Canal. 

The distance from San Francisco to Brito is 2695 miles ; through the Canal 1 69^/10 
miles ; from San Juan del Norte, the Atlantic terminus, to New York 2060 miles. 

1 otal distance 4925 miles. Allowing 28 hours to pass the Canal, this steamship would 
make the trip in i 6 10 /24 days. This makes a cost of $2.02 per ton of 2240 pounds, 
which, with the toll now charged at Suez ($1.85 per ton), will make $3.87 per ton from 
San Francisco to New York. A lower Canal toll or a decreased speed, say to 10 
knots, would still further reduce the cost. This steamship will carry in weight or 
measurement, at ship’s option, as generally laden, 12,000 tons, which reduces cost to 
$ 3-53 P er l° n g ton, freight and Suez Canal toll, from San Francisco to New York in 
i 6'%4 days. The steamships “ Manitoba” and “Massachusetts ” of 5,673 tons gross and 
3,654 tons net register, steam an average of \2]/ 2 knots on 60 tons coal per day and 
carry, including coal, 7,500 dead weight, with round voyage expenses of $20,000, 
giving nearly as good results. An English freight steamship is now being built with a 
measurement capacity of 17,750 tons, of which approximately 1,000 tons will be 
occupied for coal, leaving an enormous freight capacity, which will make her relatively 
much less costly to operate than the examples cited and the cheapest cargo carrier 
known to commerce. This ship, however, will draw when fully laden 28 feet, and, 
although she would pass the Canal, the navigable depth of which is to be 30 feet, 
a ship so large is debarred from entry into many important ports of the world. 

The high-speed passenger steamships now crossing the Atlantic could make the 
Canal voyage from San Francisco to New York in eleven days, including time allowed 
for passage through the Canal. But the transatlantic round voyage expenses of these 
“ocean flyers” is $75,000 to $80,000, and they are not intended to carry cheaply, 
time being the essence of their construction. 

The examples given above are authentic, and amply illustrate what the Canal can 
do for the producers and merchants of the Pacific Coast. It is idle to talk of land 
transportation on any such costs as above stated, and there are possibilities of still 
further decrease in cost of operating cargo steamships ; indeed, with a speed not 
exceeding 10 knots, these same ships can reduce the cost given above somewhat, and 
quite largely reduce it with a speed of 9 knots per hour. It is to be noted also that 
most of the cheap and bulky freight does not require high speed, cost controlling the 
question. 

The ocean is God’s great highway—nature’s cheap transportation route ; an abund¬ 
ance of water but no watered stocks, no tracks to maintain, no switches to be left open 
—its use free to all on equal terms ! 

The discussion of this branch of the subject may be fitly terminated with a table of 
comparative distances, proving the saving made by the Nicaragua Canal. No other 
artificial waterway on the globe, now or to be constructed, can make so favorable a 
showing : the table is important both for study and reference. 


38 


TABLE OF DISTANCES, IN NAUTICAL MILES, BETWEFN COMMERCIAL PORTS OF THE WORLD, AND 

DISTANCES SAVED BY THE NICARAGUA CANA 1 . 

Compiled from data furnished by the United States Hydrographic Office. Length of Sailing Routes approximate ouly 


Between 


0 ) 

Q. 

a 

U 

a 

6 

>- 

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a. 


u> 







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— 

09 

o 

c 


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<D (1) 

c 

ci 

a> 

a> 

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UQ 

ir. 

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cc 

s| 

a5 

be 

c3 

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o 

0) 

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p. 

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Nicar 

Canal 

be ^ 

1 = 

C3 

vX 

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o ! 

o 

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'C CO 



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| S 

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Q) O 

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- £ 

t S 

'O CO 


New York and San Francisco. 

15,660 

13,174 

13,935 

14,439 

15,705 

11,555 

12,037 


“ Puget Sound. 


“ “ Sitka. 



“ “ Bering Strait. 



“ Acapulco. 



“ Mazatian. 



“ Hong Kong. 


13,750 

15,217 

12,830 

14,069 

“ “ Yokohama. 



“ Melbourne... 

13,760 

12,600 

15,480 

12,860 
11,599 
13,290 
9,640 
10,300 
8,440 
13,539 
11,920 
12,402 
10,005 
8,805 
13,494 

11,875 
12.357 
11,919 
10,620 
9,960 
8,760 
13,610 

“ “ Auckland, N. Z. 

“ Honolulu, S. Is. 

“ Callao. 


“ “ Guayaquil. 



t( 11 Valparaiso. 

9,420 

16,000 


New Orleans and San Francisco. ... 


“ Acapulco. 


Mazatian. 



Callao. 



“ Valparaiso. 



Liverpool and San Francisco. 

15,620 


“ Acapulco. 


“ Mazatian. 



“ “ Auckland. 

12,130 

13,357 

“ “ Guayaquil. 

“ “ Callao/. 



“ “ Valparaiso. 

9,3S0 


“ “ Honolulu. 


“ Yokohama. 


14,505 





4,907 

5,665 

6,177 

7,402 

3,045 

3.675 

10,692 

9.227 
9,862 
8 462 
6,417 
3,744 

3.227 
5,014 
4,147 
2,285 
2,915 
2,984 
4,254 
7,627 
5,765 
6,395 

11,182 

5,947 

6,464 

7.734 

9,137 

11,947 


10.753 


3,058 

5,990 

3,S98 

4,138 

7,063 


4,406 

11,853 



948 


1,646 


8,267 

8,270 

8,262 

8,303 

8510 

8,362 


2,998 

3,137 

6,873 

5,896 

7,073 

3,426 

9,392 

9,635 

9,487 

7,021 

4,551 

5.867 

6,110 

5,962 

737 

4,673 

3.496 

1,026 

44,73 

2,558 


Length of Canal, in Nautical Miles. .. 

.. 147 

Western 

Port of Canal to San Francisco, 

2,700 

New York to Eastern Port of Canal.... 

.. 2,060 

a 


u 

Portland. 

3,345 

Liverpool “ “ 

U 

.. 4,780 

a 

u 

i i 

Puget Sound .. 

3,458 

Hamburg ,f 1 

a 

.. 5,127 


U 

u 

Valparaiso.... 

2,807 

Havre “ “ 

<< 

.. 4,691 

u 

U 

u 

Callao. 

1,537 

New Orleans “ “ 

u 

.. 1,300 

u 

tt 

u 

Yokohama.... 

7,020 








































































































THE NICARAGUA CANAL AND THE RAILROADS. 


It will be conceded that the managers of the railways of the United States are among 
the most able and intelligent men in the Republic, indeed the most prominent among 
the fraternity have few equals in the world. The criticism of any policy adopted by 
corporations controlled by such a class of our citizens, demands a confidence born of 
conviction and patient inquiry. I should hardly dare attempt it but for the anecdote 
stating that when VVestinghouse visited Commodore Vanderbilt to induce the adoption 
of his system of air brakes, he was met with the assertion from the veteran steamship and 
railroad millionaire that “ he had no time to spend with fools !” No brighter intellect has 
developed in the transportation interests of our country than Cornelius Vanderbilt, al¬ 
though Mr. Huntington and Jay Gould may be classed as his peers. If then, so able a 
man could make so pronounced a mistake, I may be excused if I respectfully criticize 
another point in the policy of our main East and West railroad managers. I recall that 
the late Count De Lesseps said to me in 1880 — “ Captain, great Engineers make great 
mistakes and little Engineers make little mistakes ,” and he added with a characteristic 
shrugging of his shoulders, “ Captain Eads is a great Engineer !” It is the weakness of 
humanity to err, and men of great affairs make great mistakes because they handle great 
interests. 

That cynical philosopher Carlyle, remarks that “ the course of hitman action can 
be safely predicated upon the fact of human selfishness." If this be true of individuals, 
no less can be expected from corporate policy. But if corporate policy be proven in 
error, and conviction follows the argument, that policy will be changed. I can at least 
present such argument as appears to me conclusive, and request for it a fair consider¬ 
ation. 

It is well known that the only active opponents of the Nicaragua Canal are the 
Railway systems running East and West. Legislation which would, ere this, have 
secured “an American canal under American control,” has been prevented by their in¬ 
fluence in Congress. The managers of these Railway systems entertain the idea that 
the Canal will create a competition in freights which they desire to avoid, or at least, 
postpone, as long as possible. Indeed, the future competition is a certainty, but I 
hope to demonstrate that the assured compensation far outweighs it, and that the best 
friends of the Canal should be the Railway managers who have so actively opposed 
its construction. While the cost of water transportation compares with that by land 
in the ratio of from one to five to one to ten, in accordance with the conditions of 
each case, water transportation has its restrictions, and cannot divert from the com¬ 
peting railway, passenger or freight business demanding quick transit, while it is a 
wonderful developer of that class of transportation, as I shall endeavor to prove. 

A most conclusive instance of this is the history of the development of the Lake 
Superior re?ion in connection with theSault St. Marie Canal, uniting the great Lakes. 
When that Canal was opened, the railroad companies in the vicinity feared a serious diver¬ 
sion of their carrying trade. The result was exactly the opposite. The cheap freights 
by water through the canal rapidly developed the surrounding region, population in¬ 
creased, mines were opened, new farms cultivated, new towns founded, and the railway 


4 o 



WILLIAM L. MERRY, 

Consul General, Republic of Nicaragua, to the Western States and Territories 

of the United States. 


facilities proved so inadequate to the development that they have been duplicated, and 
in some instances quadrupled. Development of this character means a great increase 
of population, and the carriage of passengers pays a railroad far better than freight. I 
may truthfully state that millions of tons of ores that have passed through the Sault St. 
Marie Canal for Cleveland and other points south, for reduction, would now be lying 
in their native ore beds but for the cheap water transportation which permitted their 
profitable handling. So rapidly has this water-borne commerce augmented that in 1894, 
during the period that the St. Mary’s Canal was free of ice, a greater tonnage passed 
through it than through the Suez Canal, making it to-day the World’s greatest artificial 
waterway ! As a matter of fact, the railway companies could have better afforded to 





4i 


have built the canal than to have remained without its aid in the development of their 
tributary territory ! Incidentally I may also state that this canal is a standing proof of 
the ability of locks to handle an enormous tonnage with economy. The immense tonnage 
passes through the St. Mary’s Canal locks by day and at night, with the aid of electric 
lights, practically without accident or delay, and the pressure for transit has so increased 
that the United States Government is now constructing a new lock to accommodate 
shipping which will be opened in 1896, making the second large lock to be operated in 
overcoming the same difference in level. 

Returning to the main question before us, we have the Erie Canal, which, although 
free to navigation, has so aided the development of the territory tributary to the railways 
running parallel thereto, that we now have a double track road on each side, crowded 
with traffic ! 

These two instances would appear to be conclusive, but they could be multiplied 
in less conspicuous instances did space permit. 

The history of the Southern Pacific Company illustrates the cheapness of water 
transportation in another way. Although controlling a railway line across the Continent, 
the very able gentleman at the head of this great corporation bought out the Morgan 
Steamship Company, operating between his gulf terminus at New Orleans and New 
York, under exceptional disadvantages of ocean navigation, through the Florida Stream. 
By its aid he has practically dictated the traffic policy of all the transcontinental rail¬ 
ways except the subsidized Canadian Pacific Railway, and even this latter cannot at 
times, safely disregard his demands ! So far as I can ascertain, no railroad manager 
claims that the Morgan Steamship Line injures the traffic of the railways between New 
Orleans and New York ; on the contrary, it supplements their usefulness. 

That the Nicaragua Canal will divert heavy freight from the overland railways we 
may be assured ; otherwise it would little benefit our people to decrease the ocean car¬ 
riage to the markets of Europe and our Eastern seacoast nearly ten thousand miles. It 
is in the rapid development of the entire Pacific Coast that the compensation would 
result. The Pacific Coast of the United States is now isolated from the markets for 
our products. It cannot be expected that over two mountain chains and over three 
thousand miles the locomotives can compete with the five thousand ton steamer that 
carries in one cargo the load of 333 cars of 30,000 pounds each. The products of our 
Coast are mostly bulky and relatively cheap ; they must have very low freight to enable 
them to compete in the world’s markets and leave anything to the producer. That the 
producers of these products have generally nothing left under the present conditions* 
after paying freight and charges, is too well known to need proof. The Sacramento 
Valley which has absolutely decreased in population and in the number of landowners 
during the past fifteen years, is a striking proof of this, for there is no more fertile valley 
in the world. The small landowners could not live : they have been foreclosed or have 
sold out, and the land has generally reverted to larger holdings. Certainly, no condition 
can be more unpromising to the railways in that region. And this condition is obtain¬ 
ing elsewhere ; relief must come or we shall untimately have a few large landowners 
(the railway companies among them) and a scant population to patronize railroads or 
merchants. 

Stagnation now rules the industrial interests of the Pacific Coast. Our lumber 
industry is practically at a stand still and has been unremunerative for some years. 
Our wheat industry is dead so far as profits in the export trade are concerned. Our 


42 


fruit industry remains remunerative in exceptional cases, but before the cheap water¬ 
way to the Atlantic can be completed will arrive at the same condition. Indeed, 
horticulturists are complaining bitterly of high freights to Eastern markets and demand¬ 
ing relief. Our lands are neglected because it does not generally pay to cultivate them, 
our merchants find their clientage decreasing; our manufacturers have in many 
instances closed up their factories and discharged their workmen. 

If this be the result, after twenty-five years of direct railway connection with the 
East, well may our people look for a remedy in different conditions. And these con¬ 
ditions will certainly follow the construction of the Nicaragua Canal, without injury to 
our present inland transportation interests. Not only will the Canal give us a free 
outlet for our products, but it will open the highway for a desirable European immigra¬ 
tion. I write desirable advisedly, for nothing can be so objectionable as the flooding of 
this country with the communists, anarchists and lazzaroni of Europe. It will cost 
more to come here than to go to our Eastern seaports, and we shall, it is to be 
presumed, receive the best grade of immigrants. But this question is not germain to 
the purpose of this paper and may be dismissed with the assertion that it is high time 
to legislate for our protection therein. It is in the advent of an increasing population 
and the resultant indust?'ies that the railway systems, now antagonistic to the Canal, 
will find their compensation for a diversion of a part of their through traffic. Their 
managers admit that the through haul has always been less remunerative than the short 
haul, and that its adjustment meets with increasing difficulties every year. New and 
powerful competitors are coming into the field. The subsidized Canadian Pacific, the 
Atchison & Santa Fe, the Northern Pacific, the Panama and Tehuantepec Isthmus, the 
Guatemala Northern and the Cape Horn route, will all compete for through business. 
Even the Suez Canal is a disturbing factor in the overland carriage of the products of 
China and Japan. With the completion of the Nicaragua Canal the policy of our 
Pacific Coast railroads will necessarily change. The local haul to and from tide-water 
will have precedence, and Pacific Coast ports will become distributing points for the 
products of China and Japan. Instead of competing with the Suez Canal for this trade at 
New York to such an extent that the trade of San Francisco in the same products is dis¬ 
criminated against, our railways will contest it by distribution eastward from the seaboard 
of the Pacific. The flow of Asiatic commerce to the Atlantic, passing San Francisco at its 
very doors, on the shortest ocean route, it will, with San Diego, become a port of call 
for transpacific steamships, their passengers and a part of their freight swelling the 
income of our railroads, while these same steamships will fill their vacant cargo space 
with Pacific Coast products, hauled to tide water by rail. Under these conditions even 
the railways eastward from the Missouri River will benefit more largely by the increased 
population and development of the Pacific Slope than can be lost by them on any 
diverted traffic. It is in fact an impossibility that any railway will be injured by the 
conditions alluded to and which will result from the completion of the Nicaragua Canal. 

The Pacific Coast of the United States is in a transition state. The isolation of 
pioneer days has passed. We are being brought face to face with the competition of 
the whole world. It is our railroads that have brought us to this condition, and 
they cannot ignore the result. We cannot stop half way—that policy has been proven 

A steamship from Yokohama to the Atlantic, via Canal, lengthens her voyage only 91 miles by 
calling at San Francisco, and from Hongkong to the Atlantic lengthens it only 20 miles. 


43 


ruinous. We must throw down all the barriers impeding the cheapest intercourse, and 
make our fight for progress on the principles of competition. This the Nicaragua Canal 
will do for us. The ocean is a free highway given us by an Almighty hand ; no right of 
way, no wear and tear, no bonded indebtedness for track and stations, no depreciation. 

“ Not so Thou ! 

Same as creations dawn beheld, Thou rollest now ! ” 

We can no longer endure the condition of isolation which has induced an arrested 
development. We need a greater population, small land holdings with more owners; 
we must have a shorter cheap water route for our lumber, our cereals and other pro¬ 
ducts, which the railways cannot haul across the continent and thence ship to Europe 
with profit. An increase of desirable population is an absolute necessity to our prosper¬ 
ity. It is not the half-million in San Francisco but the millions of contented residents 
in our great interior that we need the most. The city of San Francisco is already 
larger than the population in its tributary interior warrants, and our great seaport will 
grow when conditions warrant ; indeed, when its wharves are crowded with the steam¬ 



ships from Atlantic ports it will become the commercial center of the Pacific Coast— 
that it must become under any supposable conditions, for the impress of an Almighty 
hand rests with approval upon our unequaled position as a seaport, and upon the noble 
rivers and fertile valleys which are tributary to it. 

Will the development which I have imperfectly delineated inflict injury upon our 
railway interests? How vain such a conclusion ! California could better afford to 
pay for the Nicaragua Canal herself than be without it, and our railway systems can 
better afford to aid its speedy construction than to oppose it. 

During the five years necessary for construction the imperative necessity for the 
Nicaragua Canal will have been accentuated, and when it is in active operation our 
railway systems will regard it as an ally in development and transportation, while our 
people will refer to the present period, prior to the Canal, as the arrested development 
which, like a black cloud hung over our beautiful Pacific Coast to be succeeded by the 
sunshine of such healthy progress and prosperity as we have never known ! Our coun¬ 
try has here an empire, with products and climate so diversified that they excite the 


































44 


wonderful admiration of close observers. The bane of isolation is gradually leaving it, 
and when the glorious day arrives that the first American steamship floats upon the 
Inland Sea of Nicaragua, laden with California products, our emancipation will be com¬ 
plete ! It will inaugurate the period of increased population and increasing railroad 
earnings, not only for Pacific Coast railroads but for all the iron highways reaching 
toward the Atlantic. 

The mistaken policy which opposes the elimination of nearly half the earth’s cir¬ 
cumference from the navigable distance to the great markets of Europe and the Eastern 
seaboard, will have become ancient history, to which allusion will only be made as a 
proof of the fallacy of human judgment, even among the most able minds of the age ! 

It is, indeed not an easy matter to predict all the changes which will result from 
the opening of the great inter-oceanic highway. It requires the technical knowledge 
of a navigator, the commercial acumen of an experienced merchant, and the prescience 
of a wise statesman to forecast the result of such a change in the lines of communica¬ 
tion between the nationsof the earth, but of one thing we may be certain — the elimination 
of ten thousand miles of navigation from the longest ocean route on the globe cannot 
result otherwise than in a momentous change for the better, for time and distance are 
controlling factors in the prosperity of the human race, and the period of national 
isolation has passed. 

I have not alluded to the value of the Canal to our country and to the other 
n'ations of the world, especially to the republics of the American continent. Who will 
deny the prestige, the political and military advantage, to the Great Republic, the 
development of Central American commerce by which our people will largely benefit, 
the increase of our mercantile marine, “the Star of Empire” marching Westward! 
These considerations have been apart from my main argument, and if I have convinced 
the reader that the Nicaragua Canal will become the ally and the complement of 
American railroads, instead of a competitor to be dreaded, my object will have been 
accomplished. So bright an intellect as William H. Seward has remarked that “the 
Pacific Ocean is to be the scene of man’s greatest achievements.” In this great history 
of the future our Pacific railroads will work hand in hand with the Canal, the thought 
of adverse interests will vanish, and a common interest in development, with increased 
commerce and prosperity, will supplant it. And this change of sentiment will do 
honor to the great minds that first admit the facts which they cannot prevent, unless 
they make the world move backward ! 



MAP OF THE WORLD, SHOWING LINES OF NAVIGATION THROUGH THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 


Knots. 

The shortest practicable rouie from Brito to Yokohama. 7,145 

Knots. 

Brito to San Francisco. ... 2,700 

San Francisco to Yokohama. .... 4,530 


Theref* re the distance from Brito to Yokohama, via San Francisco, is. 7,236 

Therefore excess of route via San Francisco over shortest practicable route, is.. 91 

Knots. 

Brito to Honolulu... . 4,210 

Honolulu to Yokohama. 3,40u 


Shortest practicable route from Brito to Yokohama, via Honolulu.. 7,610 

Therefore excess of route via Honolulu over route via San Francisco, is. 374 


The shortest practicable route from Brito to Hongkong.. 8,740 

Knots. 

Brito to San Francisco. 2,700 

San Francisco to Hongkong. 6,060 


Therefore the distance from Brito to Hongkong, via San Francisco, is.... 8,760 

Therefore excess of route via San Francisco over shortest practicable route, is. */0 

Knots. 

Brito to Honolulu.. 4,210 

Honolulu to Hongkong. . 4,917 


Therefore the distance from Brito to Hongkong, via Honolulu, is. 9,127 

Therefore the excess of route via Honolulu over route via San Francisco, is. 3 ti 7 


The conditions as to the distances in Trans-Pacific Navigation apply approximately to all United States Pacific 
Coast Ports. 










































































46 




PERSONAL. 

In 1858, when an officer of the United States Mail Steamship Company’s steamer 
George Law ,” I first visited San Juan Del Norte, the Atlantic terminus of the Nicaragua 
Canal. In 1862, when commanding the clipper ship “ White Falcon ,” of New York, I 
visited its Pacific terminus, and from San Juan del Sur went to Virgin Bay, when I first 
beheld the magnificent inland sea of Nicaragua. The year 1863 found me at Panama, 
as agent for the Marshall O. Robert’s Line of steamships between New York and San 
Francisco. I had coal-laden vessels arriving at Aspinwall (Colon), and during the year 
I lived at Panama went over the Panama railroad twice a week. In 1864, I took com¬ 
mand of the steamship America , and remained in her two years and eight months running 
between San Francisco and Nicaragua. I was then appointed general agent in charge 
of the Nicaragua transit for the Central American Transit Company and the North 
American Steamship Company, of which my old and valued friend, William H. Webb 
of New York, was president. I practically lived on the line of the Canal , passing over 
it during nearly three years, by night and day, in steamers, boats, and canoes. 'The 
entire canal line is as familiar to me as California street. During all these years I 
was acquiring information in regard to the canalization of the American Isthmus. 
The reader may judge by the opportunities of personal investigation which I have 
been able to avail of, how thoroughly I have acquainted myself with the subject. 
So when, in the course of events, I engaged in mercantile pursuits at San Fran¬ 
cisco, and the Canal question became a matter of public interest, I was able to 
take it up intelligently and with a full appreciation of its great importance to San 
Francisco, the Pacific Coast, to the Great Republic and to all the commercial 
world. Thus, while others may properly claim the initiative on the Canal question 
from a political and military standpoint, I can properly claim to have first introduced 
the Canal question to the merchants of the United States from a commercial standpoint. 
'The views which were often considered visionary, are at this day universally accepted 
as practical, and today the Canal is the most popular enterprise before the American 
people. Already I see the reward of unwearied, and, on this Coast, until recently 
almost unaided effort, born of the conviction that the Nicaragua Canal will solve for my 
adopted City and State the great desideratum of cheap transportation to the markets of 
the world. I am so confident that I shall go from ocean to ocean over the Nicaragua 
Canal that I no longer permit myself to be annoyed at impediments and delays—the 
Canal is a certainty of the near future. There can be no more satisfactory record 
than thus to have made my years useful to my fellow citizens, to the Republic of Nica¬ 
ragua which has honored me with its confidence, to the Great Republic, and to the 
commerce of the world ! 


William L. Merry. 


























































































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